The most recent Web Design Meetup discussed the topic of Content Management Systems. Anita Cohen-Williams of MySearchGuru, a San Diego SEO, social media, and blogging fixture, as well as the group’s organizer, conceded leadership to Larry Truett of FluffyCat.com, for the evening.
The main Content Management Systems discussed were Drupal, Joomla!, and WordPress. All are relatively easy to install, especially if your hosting service uses cPanel and Fantastico, which automates installation. Each CMS has templates or themes to alter the look of sites, plug-ins to expand site functionality, content syndication (RSS), and extensive developer communities. Drupal and Joomla! are more robust and may require a learning curve for newbies. WordPress most notably lacks commerce tools, however it is the easiest to use of the three, especially for blogging or creating informational websites. There are many other open source options that can be explored at CMS Matrix, where you can compare up to 10 CMS’s at once.
Several people in the group have created their own CMS’s from scratch, which allowed them to develop a customized product. Dana Nevins, founder and chief software architect for Web Design Solutions, created an intricate CMS based around a shopping cart called Web Shop Manager. In addition, he provides hosting to clients, making it easier to push out CMS updates to all servers simultaneously.
It would be interesting to see if anyone has had any experience with TYPOlight or Plone, both of which seem to get high ratings among users. Are there any other kick-ass CMS’s out there that folks are using and having great success with?
The San Diego Web Meetup convenes on the third Monday of every month. The next meeting is on May 19th at 7 p.m at Wahoo’s Fish Tacos in Mission Valley. For more information, you can visit the group’s Meetup profile.
Jim
May 6th, 2008 at 5:04 am
I’d like to throw Brightegg into the mix. Brightegg.com, is a web-based, hosted CMS that gives non-technical people the ability to easily build, manage and market a website. Concurrently, we also offer Brightegg Private Label, 100% brandable CMS solution that interactive design and marketing firms license for a small monthly fee.
Elizabeth Leddy
May 6th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I’ve had lots of success with plone, especially in more “enterprisey” situations. It has a steep learning curve but well worth the effort. As with any cms evaluation, one has to consider the project, and the fact that “CMS” can mean just about anything these days.
Sigurd Magnusson
May 7th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
For a twist on what CMS can mean, try out SilverStripe, which is both a framework (think Ruby on Rails) with an intuitive CMS with modules, themes, widgets, etc. PHP makes it easy to host and learn. Free, of course, and backed by a company.